


Dear Reader

by Violet_Janou



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: A series of unfortunate events - Freeform, AU, F/M, M/M, POV, The Daily Punctilio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 00:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19073782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violet_Janou/pseuds/Violet_Janou
Summary: After 15 years of being out of circulation the Daily Punctilio is going to be hitting the news stands and the hands of Newsboys to spread the word of the news in and around the city and the world.The catch? Those who are now owners of the paper have promised to be unbiased and truthful.But in order to move forward the paper publishes an open letter to address the two families whose names painted the headlines of the paper many years ago. Those two families are no other than The Baudelaire’s and The Quagmires.





	Dear Reader

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been a fan of ASOUE since I was in the 5th grade which was 18 years ago. This series helped me fall in love with writing, gaining the conference I have now and allowed me to become immersed in a world I wanted to be in a part of. I own everything from books, the board game, the binder that Barnes and Noble sold. I even got the famous VFD tattoo on my left ankle for my birthday two years ago. 
> 
> I also loved the Netflix show and what not only NPH did but the entire cast and crew keeping the few that made this series so magical and made me the human I am today. 
> 
> So, this story came from a weird dream and while I never thought I would write a fic for this series I couldn’t pass up this idea I had. 
> 
> It’s a bit of a mix of both book series and Netflix series producing these words I wrote while on vacation since I’m now old and my back spasmed and I couldn’t really move at certain points. 
> 
> Enjoy guys!   
> Vi

Dear Daily Punctilio Readers, 

It’s been 15 years since there has been a publication of this newspaper. While the newspaper lay dormant, life and news did not. Some of the older readers will remember The Daily Punctilio as the libel newspaper full of flashy headline and false allegations against many people causing them or their families hardships. After this paper was purchased two years ago the owners made a promise and dedication to not only the staff but you, the readers, to keep the news unbiased. To inform the reader; be it the one who reads the paper in the morning with coffee, those who stand on the trolly whole going into the city, or those who sit in traffic while in the back of a taxi, or to the captain and crew members on a submarine, about the news in the city, and the vast world we are a small part of. 

When the paper was purchased there were whispers of who had purchased it. The rumblings that VFD has rose from the ashes like a phoenix and they had purchased it. Some said it was one of Eleanora Poe’s sons to bring her name back to a good light. Some thought it was twin sisters whose faces were whiter than most due to theater makeup they wore. All these are wrong.

Klaus Baudelaire among with Isadora and Duncan Quagmire were the ones who purchased the paper. 

For the young readers, these two names mean little to nothing to you, as for those who followed The Daily Punctilio when Geraldene Julian and Eleanora Poe were reporters and editor will know these names as the two sets of children who lost there parents in a not so random fire and had tragedy and misfortune followed them around. This paper is what drove these children to flee the city for fear or what the lies would do to them. The readers might also be worried that since the paper is owned by them that there will be talks of the organization they once belonged to. There will be no talks of schisms, volunteer fire departments or the embellished tails of the trails these children had seen and experienced. But in order to move forward, this open letter will let the reader catch up in the parts of the lives The Baudelaire’s and Quagmires are allowing us to know. 

Fifteen years ago the Quagmire Triplets; Duncan, Isadora and Quigley landed in the city in a homemade hot air balloon with Hector Hernandez, former resident of the Village of Fowl Devotees. Upon landing they had to go and make their brother Quigley undead - and then with the help of a now brave former handyman they went to their old family lawyer and brought to light the plight of not only the unfortunate events in there own life but that of their friends. While most of those who had plotted against them, who had tried to kidnap them, steal there fortune and even kill them had perished in a terrible fire at a once local hotel in the city. But, the few that escaped were sent to prison due to the brave testimonies of the Quagmires and Hector. As satisfying it was to have these vile humans away for the rest of their lives there was a part of them that felt they hadn’t done enough. They were happy and safe while there friends were out there somewhere when they should have been with them. 

“Everything we did was to thank them for reuniting our family,” Duncan said setting his coffee mug down. “We were never sure if they would ever come back to the city”- at this point his voice cracked thinking about the resort that they might. It have ever been reunited with there close friends. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to blubber like this.” 

After a few moments Duncan composes himself and continued. “There was an unspoken fear our friends would never return and be able to enjoy this new freedom and youth that we had and it weighed heavily on us.”

Before a blink of an eye Hector got a job as a handyman at a local school to help provide for the Quagmires, they moved from there once self sustaining hot air balloon to a three bedroom apartment over a Chinese restaurant. It was different from what they had experienced before they were excited to have stability in there life for the first time in a long while. Hector enrolled them into school and while they hadn’t been in for a few years he was able to get them caught up with a tutor and they were on track by the end of the year. No matter how much they tried, the thoughts of the Baudelaire’s were in the back of their minds wondering where they were and if they were safe. After being in the city for two years the Quagmire’s didn’t realize that day in there walk to school would be a day that changed there lives yet again. 

“We never gave up hope,” Quigley Quagmire explained when I sat down with him. He adjusted in his chair as he thought about this time in his life. “My heart ached to see Violet again, to tell her I was okay and make sure that she was okay along with her siblings.” His thumb turned the ring on his ring finger. “I didn’t tell my siblings this, but I felt guilty that I never helped when I could have at the Anwhistle Aquatics Center.”

“I knew they were still out there,” Isadora told me matter of factly as she turned to her brothers. “They were the Baudelaire’s - nothing could stop them. Plus, I had that feeling.”

That feeling that Isadora had was correct, and while it was never mentioned all three triplets knew they were alive but feared to speak the words out loud Incase they were wrong.

“Even when they didn’t speak about it I knew there was a weight on them about there friends,” Hector said as he sat at his inventing bench. “The day I got the call The Baudelaire we’re back in the city I had never felt as happy as I did then and there.”

That spring day the Baudelaire’s made landfall they weren’t sure where to go. The city looked the same yet felt different to them. They were still children but felt old and wise for theirs years. While the busy businessman and woman passed them buy Violet knew they had to turn themselves in and face whatever consequence that faces them. They gathered the few belongings they had from the boat and there sandal covered feet moved over the payment to the police station. Standing there they looked up at the building and they felt small for the first time in a long while. 

“I felt like I did when I stood in front of the bank the day we were told we were going to move in with a strange man we had never met,” Sunny said as she looked at me across the kitchen table at her home. “Even though I was young, I remember that feeling and it was as if the unfortunate events had come full circle standing there.”

All four children took a deep breathe in before they walked in together, carrying the small baby with there heads held high. They walked right up to the officer behind the desk, gave him there names and they braced themselves for the worst.

“I expected all these police officers to come and cuff us, take away Beatrice and separate us,” Violet explained to me as she pulled the ribbon out of her hair and relaxed in the kitchen chair with a fresh cup of tea. “But they escorted us to Detective Luther where he told us about what the Quagmires and Hector had done for us and then informed me that he was going to have a lawyer come down to speak to me.”

While Violet and her siblings were sailing the open waters, fighting off Finnish female pirates while trying to repair the ship’s damage from a storm, Violet had turned 18. Which for all intensive purposes of this open letter is that she had come of age to acquire the Baudelaire fortune. After Mr. Poe, former president of orphan affairs, was put in jail Jacquelyn the Queen of Winnipeg has the Baudelaire’s money moved to a bank with more security. 

Sitting there the Baudelaire’s didn’t think it was their life. For the past several years they had been beaten down and kept down with one unfortunate event to the next and it followed them around for years. Every word that was leaving the lawyers mouth was factual and while Sunny was only half listening Violet and Klaus were trying to wrap their minds around all that was being told to them. 

“When they told me our parents set aside money that allowed us to find a place to live,” explained Violet as she had a look of relief on her face thinking back to that moment. Violet told me that when the lawyer was taking she realize that Klaus and Sunny could go to school and she would be able to raise Beatrice. They were still unaware that Hector was in his way to get them and bring them home with him to live. As they sat there Sunny Baudelaire remembers seeing out of the corner of her eye a many she knew from what seemed like a lifetime ago standing there in his overalls and a shy smile on his face.

“I couldn’t help but cry,” Hector said as he fiddled with his hat they laid on the table in front of him “I had felt that I had failed them, that my cowardice had been the demise of these brave children. So when I saw they were alive and well I was a blubbering mess.”

As soon as all three children embraced their old guardian, they had a brief cry and explained to them who Beatrice was, Hector brought the children home. This was the first time in some years since the Baudelaire’s were in a proper home. They had been campers in a burnt down head quarters, they had spent a few evening in a submarine that had seen better days, and for the past two years had been living in a hollowed out tree there parents made. When they arrived to the apartment Hector let them know it wasn’t much and they would have to share the space with The Quagmires, but that didn’t matter to The Baudelaire’s.

They had found the actual last safe place for them. It was home with The Quagmires and Hector. 

“I felt that I was dreaming,” all three Quagmires told me in unison.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Quigley said with a smile spread across his entire face. “We had gotten home from school and we had homework to do and were debating if we wanted to go to this event at school and when we walked in they were sitting there at the table as Hector gave them hot coco and we just froze.”

“I screamed, I ran up to Klaus and gave him a kiss and then cried,” Isadora laughed as her face flushed red. 

“I felt as if it was a wild dream,” Duncan said. “I just stood there not sure what else to do.”

After the friends reunited, cried tears of happiness they all sat around the kitchen table while Hector made some enchiladas the two sets of siblings filled in the blanks of the long complicated unfortunate story they were both intertwined in. Each taking turn to carry the burden of there trouble tale which for all intensive purposes ended here. There unfortunate events finally had come to an end and they were able to start a new. Before figuring out what to do when it came to the new semester at school Hector made them eat dinner as a family, he got the Baudelaire’s settled before he allowed them to stay up talking and being teenagers for the first time in a lot while.

The following weeks were filled with check ups, having them take a few tests to see what work needed to be done for them to catch up to be in the proper grades the following year. But all in all Hector wanted them to get acclimated to this new life. Just like their parents, The Baudelaire’s are smart and resourceful so there ability to bridge there educational gasps were quick but contained long hours and hard work. 

“We had a lot to do, I remember that Hector got us tutor and made sure that we were caught up on our education and that Violet was able to graduate and get into a college after everything,” Klaus said as he removes his glasses to clean them. “He went above and beyond to get us to feel normal after all those years, even then taking the role of a guardian for Beatrice and raised her while we were at school allowing us to have some years as normal teenagers and children.”

After a year The Baudelaire siblings had assimilated into normal life again. The fear of danger lurking behind every corner was gone. Now the fear of getting caught coming in after curfew was the only fear they worried about. While the two sets of siblings made the apartment work Violet and Duncan had formed an idea that would help everyone and finally establish a home for everyone. On the day of the Quagmire’s 18th birthday they headed down to the bank with Violet to talk to a banker about a few things. They wanted to know if it was possible to use some from there fortune to build a home on land the Baudelaire’s already owned and laid flat and vacant. The banker found a clause in the will which would allow these four children to act there there plan. As soon as they got the figure the children took a taxi and went to an old friend of there’s parents who would help the blueprints Violet had drawn up come to life. 

The prints showed a three story house, a vast backyard with a pool along with an inventing studio separate from the house. 

The basement of the house would hold items they had saved from there youth along with items they were bequeathed upon from a few wills of previous guardians along with a place to do the laundry. Since it’s a known fact that no one in recorded human history enjoys laundry, Violet was planning to make a few modifications to make the process of sorting and washing quicker and the distribution of the clean clothes in the baskets using s belt system they moved to each floor dropping them off where the children could grab them and put them away. 

The main entryway was a grand staircase that broke off to both sides leading to the wing for the Baudelaire’s and the wing for the Quagmire’s. The rich wood floors on the first level lead to several rooms on the floor. The right front of the house was a vast library,  one that would be able to fill all the books the children had found out they now owned due to the will of a few dead guardians and one librarian who helped them when no one else would. The bookshelves run from floor to the ceiling and then pick up from the second floor where they would be a desk for Duncan to do his research. Inside in of the bay windows was a desk for Klaus and a desk for Isadora could be found in the poetry section. The room was then filled with oversized chairs that even engulfed Sunny as she would sit there on lazy Sunday afternoons reading cookbooks or forcing herself to study for a test in school. Next to the library was a smaller room, that would eventually be turned into a formal living room, but for that point in time, it would house a table for Beatrice along with toys and books for her to keep her occupied while the others did homework or projects for school or for fun. 

On the opposite side was a dining room which had a table for holidays and birthdays. The dining room lead into the kitchen which was massive to say the least. It took up the majority of the back part of the house. She wanted to make sure the kitchen could house them all but, she also wanted to make sure it was a place for Hector and Sunny. Off the kitchen was a smaller room

That housed a television, a large oversized couch where they would enjoy movie nights with popcorn and snacks. 

As you climbed the stairs when you went to the left was where the Baudelaire’s stayed and to the right was where the Quagmire’s lived. Each hallway housed four rooms, two bathrooms and then a master style bedroom at the end. These plans confused the Quagmires when they were going over the prints with the architect. 

“I remember the look on Quigley’s face,” giggled Violet her face lighting up with joy as she turned to Duncan. “When I told him I had made one for us when we got married and one for Klaus and Isadora. I think he was more upset I knew he would propose than me making us a bedroom.”

For Hector, they made a suite for him in the attack. A space where he could escape 2 children and 5 teenagers and the calamity that was the house once it was built. Each room would turn into a slice of sanctuary for each person. 

The house be it grand, once it was built and filled with furniture and the small personal items each one had it get like a proper home for all of them. It took a year to build and a week to get everything situated until everyone settled in and there minds, which use to always be thinking of when they would have to get up and leave got use to the fact they weren’t. This was there home, there sanctuary. The last safe place in a city full of chaos. Both Baudelaire and Quagmire siblings were thrilled they could repay Hector for all his hard work he had done and was still doing for them. 

In the years that followed the house saw children grow into teenagers and teenagers grow into adults. From Beatrice’s first steps to Quigley proposing to Violet in the backyard the day she graduated from college. The Baudelaire and Quagmire children, who are not so much children as they are adults have been making a life for themselves in the city. Expanding friendship circles, getting jobs they love and are paid in money and not gum. But more than anything else they have found the peace and contentment they had longed for since the death of both sets of parents.

But what about them? Well, like most people there are parts of their lives they wish to remain private while what you read is all you need to know. 

Violet, who is now 30 is a professor at the college in the city where she went. She teaches several science courses and has helped rebuilding the science curriculum and program. She started a females inventors club where girls interested in science and inventions can come and have a safe work environment to express themselves and explore ideas and creations they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. But, more importantly when Violet isn’t grading papers or making sure her two younger siblings are causing to much trouble she is being the best mother she could be to four year old twins, Kit and Montgomery. Keeping with Baudelaire, Snicket and Quagmire tradition Violet and Quigley named there kids after family members that had passed.

“If you would have asked 16 year old me if I ever thought I would be where I am now I would have laughed,” Violet told me as she looked at the baby monitor and then back up at me. “We had been so far removed from a normal life that I never thought I would get one ever again.” 

While modest still, Violet enjoys the moments sharing her passion for inventing with her children. It still reigns true that family comes first for her and Quigley and all they do. 

Quigley, now 29 works for the city as a planner part time and a full time dad. While he loves his job, he is proud to have a wife fulfilling her dreams while fulfilling his of being a father and husband to a woman he loved.

“It was easy to get a job, they had been struggling still after the fires set throughout the city and after the fungi plague hit they needed as much help as they could get.” Quigley told me with a grin on his face. The stubble he had let grown was now forming a nice beard.

While he works for the city he also does some freelance work for neighboring cities which allows him to travel some but stay close to his family. He and his brothers have weekly game nights with coworkers and friends to help them decompress from long hours and stress of work and fatherhood. But he told me he wouldn’t give any of it up. 

Klaus, 28 is co-owner of the paper where he oversees the running and final print of the paper. When he isn’t working here at the paper he also works at the library in the city.

“I wanted to carry on the legacy of Olivia who gave her life for me and my siblings,” Klaus explained as he adjusted his glasses. “So, me working there if for her, and the fact I do love to read.”

Even with this busy schedule Klaus has been taking course for graduate school to help him with running the paper. In addition to that, helping raise Sunny and Beatrice he and Isadora are planning a wedding. They are to be married later this year in a small ceremony with close friends and a few family members that are still around. 

“It’s been quite a journey to get to this point in my life - but as much as we faced adversity I don’t think I would want to change it or we wouldn’t have met Klaus and his sisters and I wouldn’t be the woman I am now,” Isadora told me as we sat at the local coffee shop Blackbird.

Isadora, 29 graduated with a degree in literature and focus on poetry. Her main job is working with the newspaper while she is working on a book of poetry, she also teaches a class at the college about poetry and her distinct style of couplets. To add to that she had picked up gardening, a past time her mother loves to do, she has shared this love with Beatrice. 

The last of the proper Baudelaire’s is Sunny. She is 19 is currently a student at the culinary school in the city. While she was still young when they returned to the city a lot of what she learned while with her siblings has shaped her into the strong independent woman she is today. She is looking forward to finishing her time in culinary school and going forward to start a food truck and hopefully transition into a restaurant. 

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my siblings, Hector and The Quagmires,” Sunny told me as she handed me a plate of cookies and a glass of milk. “I’ve been playing around with a food truck concept inspired by the places I’ve been and food I’ve tasted.”

She has seen a lot from the horseradish fields along lousy lane, to the depth of the gorgonian grotto, and the heights of the once beautiful Mortmain Mountains. All that helped cultivate her love for food and passion to be able to use what she had to produce magnificent meals.

The last of the Quagmire Triplets is Duncan, who is 29 like his other siblings. He is also one of the main heads behind this paper. He is the head of research department and fact checker or news articles. Out of the three he is the triplets who has is most out of the limelight. But like his elder brother, Duncan is married to his husband Ronan. They married last year in a small ceremony in Winnipeg officiated by thereclose friend Jacquelyn. They have moved from the big house to a small house they built in the back so they were close with there family but had their own space. Besides working for the paper Duncan volunteers at a local animal shelter, where he met his husband. They own two pugs, Potato and Georgie.

“We are all happy, and it took awhile for us to not be afraid that if we got to comfortable it would be ripped from us like so many things,” Duncan explained with an arched brow. “Did you give me the sappy questions since neither Isadora or Quigley would answer them?” 

While he was correct I didn’t assumed he would call me out on it. Now for the last Baudelaire. 

Me. 

Beatrice Snicket- Baudelaire. 

I am 15 going on 16. My first name is in honor of The Baudelaire’s mother. Snicket was my mother maiden name and they had me keep it since I’m the only surviving Snicket since my mother Kit and her elder brother Jacque have passed and her other brother Lemony is still in the lamb. I’m still in school where I am in debate, student council, I have done some drama but it wasn’t my cup of tea. I don’t remember much of living in the island for I was so young, but I have enjoyed my time in this vast and amazing city. Everything I have now is all due to the determination and fortitude of The Baudelaire’s, Quagmire’s and Hector. While I won’t be working for the paper Klaus allowed me to be a guest open letter writer for the first edition of the paper. 

So here at The Daily Punctilio look forward to the rebirth of the paper. They are thrilled to bring news and knowledge to every reader. Enjoy the daily journey. 

 

With all due respect, 

Beatrice Snicket-Baudelaire


End file.
